A new proposal to improve Bitcoin for a soft fork has sparked outrage at X in a section that some claim threatens legal consequences for those who reject the fork.
The proposal, created by core developer Luke Dashjr and Published On Friday, the latest salvo in the recent Bitcoin Core vs Knots debate, which revolves around what Bitcoin should be used for and whether non-financial transactions should be filtered out.
The proposal aims to restrict data on bitcoin (BTC) transactions through a A soft fork person While a more permanent solution was created, addressing concerns that bad actors could embed illegal and immoral content into the blockchain following Bitcoin Core V30 update.
However, under the improvement proposal, the developers have written In line 261 “there is a moral and legal impediment to any attempt to reject this soft fork.”
Then starting on line 270 and continuing on line 272, the developers went into further detail, “Rejecting this soft fork may subject you to legal or moral consequences, or may result in you splitting into a new altcoin like Bcash. However, strictly speaking, you are free to choose.”
Some have called it a legal threat
Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was designed to Disrupt traditional financial institutions and empower individuals. Critics of the proposal believe any form of censorship or restriction of data sizes goes against Bitcoin’s core principle of unauthorized use.
In a post on Sunday, a user with the handle BAM, the founder of a Bitcoin education resource and systems engineer, called The word “Orwellian,” a reference to the writings of George Orwell, an author who described a future totalitarian state in his book 1984.
Ben Kaufman, a coder and software engineer, said A “fork under the threat of legal consequences is the most obvious case of an attack on Bitcoin.”
Canada Cryptographer and computer scientist Peter Todd also weigh in with a dashjr screenshot, saying It is “obvious that he expects that his soft work can be strengthened due to legal threats.”
Alex Thorn of Galaxy Digital commented To Todd’s post and agree that this is “obviously an attack on Bitcoin, however, it’s also incredibly stupid.”
Some have also warned that if miners and users separate from activation, the network could face a massive split.
Others think it has been misinterpreted
Users have long embedded messages onchain; The recent Bitcoin Core V30 update allows for larger data payloads, which the proposal claims has opened the door for anyone Participating in the network To be criminally liable if the content posted in the transactions is illegal.
Some users of X. argue That this liability is what the proposal refers to, specifically the failure to adopt the fork may result in prohibited content on the blockchain, which may lead to consequences or moral consequences.
Dashjr also appeared to support this argument in the comments of a user who claimed it was illegal to refuse the soft fork, Posting That “it doesn’t say that. Maybe you can suggest a clarification if you don’t think it’s clear.”
“May be uncertain. Also, for some contexts, I believe that this part comes from an earlier draft, without active activation (ie, the conflicting chain will definitely include CSAM) – so maybe it makes sense to add clarification,” he added.
The soft fork may still be irrelevant
The proposal for the soft fork is on track with no technical objections, according to Dashjr.
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However, Todd may have found a way to take advantage of the arrangement in the proposal. He claims to have recorded a transaction containing the full text of the proposed fork “100% standard and fully compatible” with an improvement proposal.
Meanwhile, Bitmex Research stated That a malicious actor seeking to carry out a double-rotation attack can put illegal content on the chain to “trigger a re-ORG and succeed in their attack,” thereby creating an “economic incentive” to put illegal content on the chain.
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